


all we are we are

by ohmcgee



Series: ohmcgee's mallverse [61]
Category: DCU (Comics)
Genre: Autism Spectrum, Cephalopods, Fluff and Angst, M/M, Sex Work, sensory issues
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-11-06
Updated: 2017-11-06
Packaged: 2019-01-30 09:29:32
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,573
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12650835
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ohmcgee/pseuds/ohmcgee
Summary: “Roy,” Tim says. “Have you ever known me to do something I don’t want to do?”





	all we are we are

**Author's Note:**

> Not really a warning, but this is part kidfic and you know, part Roy and Tim being Roy and Tim. Which, I guess is going to be every Roy and Tim fic from now on. :p But I know some people don't love kidfic and that's fine. Just wanted to let you know.

“What are you doing?” Tim stumbles into the living room a little before six in the morning, Roy’s old, worn out Beastie Boys shirt hanging off one shoulder. “I went to wake you up for sex and you weren’t there. Now I’m cold and annoyed. What is that?”

“Nothing,” Roy says, trying to shove the bills to the side. “Go back to bed, I’m coming.”

“No,” Tim says. “You’re being weird. What -”

Roy swipes the stack of papers off the table before Tim can grab them. “Seriously,” Roy laughs. “Your toes are turning blue, baby. Just go get back under the covers.”

Tim narrows his eyes. “But you’re coming, right?”

“Right behind you,” Roy says.

“Because,” Tim plays with the hem of his t-shirt and slides his tongue across his bottom lip, lifting the shirt just enough so Roy can see the pink lacy things he slept in last night. He’s got raccoon eyes from the mascara and eyeliner he slept in, his eyes puffy from sleep, and he’s still the cutest fucking thing Roy’s ever seen. “I really think you need to come warm me up.”

Roy licks his lips, staring at Tim’s long, gorgeous legs, and his mouth waters at the way Tim’s dick strains against the fabric.

“Or,” Tim says, taking a step forward and sitting on the edge of the table, leaning back and spreading his thighs. “You could warm me up right here.”

“Fuck,” Roy breathes out and steps into the v of Tim’s legs, sets the bills down on the table so he can lean in and suck Tim’s bottom lip into his mouth and --

And of course, that’s when Tim pushes him off of him and snatches up what he set down. Roy sighs and plops down on the floor, banging his head against the wall.

“Roy,” he says. “I pay the rent, you pay the power. We split the rest. You said you could handle that. If you couldn’t you could’ve just --”

“I  _ can, _ ” Roy snaps, then sighs and runs his hand through his hair. “I could. Then Lian had that weird rash thing from the strawberries and her insurance hadn’t kicked in and I bought you that slutty dress from Charlotte Russe because I kind of had to because I fucked you in it in the dressing room and they said they were gonna call the cops if I didn’t and then I forgot to figure in gas and --”

Tim just looks at him.. “And you got a credit card. Oh. Three credit cards.”

“Can we just...not? Do this?” Roy tries to sound calm, but he truly doubts it comes out that way. He barely slept at all last night. Hell, he’s barely gotten any sleep in weeks. He’s fucking everything up, right on schedule. How did anyone ever think he could take care of a kid? Who made that decision? It’s ridiculous. He can’t even take care of himself. He can’t do this. He can’t--

“Do you have half?”

Roy blinks up at Tim. His hands are shaking, so he runs them through his hair. Jesus, when was the last time he washed his fucking hair? “Yeah, but --”

“Okay,” Tim says. “I’ll give you the other half today, so we don’t come home to a dark apartment.”

“Tim--”

Tim looks down at him with an unrecognizable look on his face. “Come back to bed. I’m still cold.”

  
  


: : :

  
  


They drop Lian off at preschool every day at seven-thirty, but today they’re running behind because Lian dropped Sid the Squid in the stairwell and then Tim had to run back inside because he forgot to put on highlighter. Then they got a block away and Roy realized he’d forgotten his fucking cigarettes. He just sighed, said fuck it, and prayed that Steph would be in a good enough mood to share with him. 

“How do I look?” Tim asks after sweeping some iridescent powder across the top of his cheek, turning to look at Lian in the backseat of Roy’s car.

“Like a bioluminescent dinoflagellate.” She says, then snuggles her squid and goes back to sleep.

“You watched that weird Attenborough documentary, didn’t you?” Roy says, grabbing the pink Monster out of the cup holder and draining half of it.

“It wasn’t graphic,” Tim says. Roy looks at him. “It wasn’t  _ that  _ bad. I covered her eyes and made her sing Avril.”

“Ugh,” Roy groans. “I hate you.”

“Don’t hate,” Tim grins and smears a heavy coat of lavender lipstick on his lips, then leans across the center console and leaves the imprint of them behind on Roy’s cheek like a tattoo. “You know you were a skater boy.”

When they pull into the carpool lane the usual helper gets Lian out of her car seat, then her teacher walks up and taps on Tim’s window. It takes him a second because the lever’s kind of fucked up, but eventually he gets it down.

“Hi,” she says, smiling thinly at both of them. “Which one of you is Dad? I’m sorry, I’m afraid I  don’t remember.”

“Hey, it’s me,” Roy says. “Sorry we’re --”

“This is the third time Lian’s been late this year,” she interrupts him, but she pronounces Lian’s name wrong. She says it  _ Lee-on _ .

“It’s Lian,” Tim says, correcting her pronunciation, and the teacher just stares at him a minute before looking back to Roy.

“Attendance and punctuality are very important at our school, Mr. Harper. It’s important for Lian to stay on track and it’s also important for our classroom. If we have to wait for Lian to join us every morning, well, that puts our whole day off track, doesn’t it?”

“Are you serious,” Tim says and feels Roy’s hand on his arm, trying to reel him in.

“You also have to think,” the lady continues, glancing at Tim, then back at Roy again. God, Tim wishes he would have drove this morning. He wouldn’t honestly just drive right off in the middle of her talking. “Of what kind of example you are setting for her.”

Yeah, no.

“Listen, you f--”

“You’re right, Mrs. Henderson.” Roy squeezes Tim’s arm. “I promise we’ll get her here on time from now on. Thank you. We, ah, we gotta get to work now.”

“Mm,” Mrs. Henderson says. “I hope so.”

“Why,” Tim says, working on getting the window back up as Roy drives off. “Didn’t you let me go off on her? She was being --”

“A cunt,” Roy finishes. “Yep.”

He’s scratching the back of his hands the way he does when he desperately needs a cigarette.

“But what are we gonna do,” he says. He sounds so tired. “You bitch her teacher out, her teacher’s going to take it out on her, probably.”

Tim frowns. He didn’t think of it like that. And now that he’s thinking about it he’s even more pissed.

“I know twenty-seven ways to get a teacher fired. Twelve of them involve her having to leave the state.”

Roy stops at a red light and leans across the car to stick his tongue in Tim’s mouth. He didn’t have time to brush his teeth and his mouth tastes disgusting, but Tim doesn’t push him away. He’s gotten used to it. He’s gotten used to a lot of things lately. “I fucking love you,” Roy says.

Then the light turns green and he puts the car in first and takes off.

  
  


: : :

  
  


As it so happens, Steph is not in the mood to share any of her cigarettes or even look anyone in the eye, so about half an hour after they clock in Roy talks Tim into walking all the way to the Disney store. While he’s trying on mermaid tails with Harley, Roy and Mia skip out back to smoke. 

“So, what’s up?” MIa asks, kicking the toe of her boot against Roy’s chucks. “You get your shit sorted?”

Roy just laughs. “How long have you known me?”

“Long enough for you to get your shit sorted,” Mia grins, but she’s just fucking with him. Roy knows that. But she’s also kinda not. That’s why Roy came to her to bum smokes instead of anyone else. He’s known Mia since they were on the street together, pooling their change together to buy dollar cheeseburgers from McDonald’s. Mia knows where he comes from. She knows when Roy just needs a hug and a shot and when he needs a smoke and some tough love. “If you need the money I can ask --”

“Fuck you,” Roy mutters, then sighs, takes another drag of his cigarette and tilts his head up to the sky to exhale. “Tim found out. He gave me half. I don’t know how he has the money either, but he said he would and I just...didn’t want to talk about it anymore. So I let it go.”  

“Shit, you let somebody help you with something? You’re not some kind of pod person, right?”

Roy snorts. “You don’t really know Tim. It was either take his money or get my testicles removed with an eyelash curler.”

“Aww,” Mia says, knocking her foot against Roy’s again.

“Um,” Roy says. “Unless you’ve got some weird fetish I don’t know about,  _ aww _ was not an appropriate response to what I just said.”

“I’m just proud of you,” Mia says, leaning her head on Roy’s shoulder.

“Mia,” Roy says. “Are you high right now? My electricity almost got shut off today, I work at the mall, my last tattoo got infected because I thought Tim’s eyelash glue was the ointment, and I have a fucking  _ kid _ .”

“How is she, by the way?”

“The coolest person I’ve ever met,” Roy says, smiling as he flicks his ashes to the side. “Smart as fuck.”

“Still alive, then?”

“Uh,” Roy says. “Yeah?”

“Like I said,” Mia stands up and crushes the butt of her cigarette under her boot, then sticks her hand out to Roy. “I’m fucking proud of you.”

  
  


: : : 

  
  
  


“Hey,” Tim says as he draws pumpkins on the front glass with dry erase markers even though Halloween was a week ago. “I’m gonna take off a little early today. Got some errands to run.”

It’s still fucking weird that Tim offers information like that willingly now, so Roy just nods and goes back to putting the BOGO signs up everywhere. Dick comes flitting in a little after ten, sucking down some multicolor frap with sprinkles and whipped cream and god knows what else.

“The fuck are you drinking,” Steph asks, looking mildly horrified.

“Perks of dating the Head Barista, my sweet summer child,” Dick sing-songs and jumps up on the counter. “Check out my new ink.”

Roy looks up from his spot on the floor to watch Dick pull his shirt up to show them the giant octopus on his ribs. Roy chokes when he sees it.

“Dick,” he says. “Dickie. Tell me you didn’t get some half-assed sketch I drew for my kid because she forgot Sid in Donna’s car the other day tattooed on your body.”

“You drew this?” Dick asks, looking down at it. “I just found it on my desk and thought it was cool.”

“Oh my god,” Roy says. “You’re such a moron.”

“Whatever,” Dick says and hops down, tossing his empty cup in the trash. “Everyone at the tattoo place loved it.”

Roy rolls his eyes as Dick walks away and keeps working on the sketch he was doing before Dick came in. Lian wants an octopus princess, so Lian is going to get an octopus princess. He startles a bit when Steph comes to sit next to him. Today has been so weird.

“Can you draw something for me?” She asks, looking over his shoulder. Roy hates it when people look over his shoulder when he’s sketching, but if he says anything he’s pretty sure Steph will eat his face right off his face. “I have this thing in my head, but I suck at that art shit.”

Roy slides his pencil behind his ear and raises his eyebrows at her. “So do I? I mean, sometimes I like how something ends up, but even then it’s usually just luck, you know? That octopus was a piece of crap, I’m sure Jessie had to clean it up a fuck ton.”

“Shut up,” Steph says. “You’re good. Like, really good. Actually, I saw Jessie yesterday at Subway and she said one of their people just quit. You should totally put in an application or whatever.”

Roy laughs loudly, expecting Tim and Steph to join in, but neither of them do. “You’re fucking with me, right?”

“Harper,” Steph sighs, patting him on the top of his head when she gets up off the floor. “You’re kind of an idiot.”

  
  


: : : 

  
  


Tim clocks out before noon to go do his errands or whatever and Donna drops Lian off at the store around three after picking her up from school on her way into work. With Tim gone they’re fairly busy, so Lian sits in the back with Dick and colors in his lap while he tries to figure out the schedule for next week. 

“I thought this was buy one, get one,” a high school girl with nearly every part of her face pierced says to Roy with more attitude than he thought was possible, and he works with Steph.

“Nope,” Roy says. It’s the fucking after school rush and he does not have time for this shit. “Only on the racks with the bogo sign.”

“It  _ was _ on the rack,” the girl insists, pointing behind him. The shitty part is she’s right. Roy watched Tim hang that shirt on the clearance rack earlier and he forget to fix it because he was busy staring at Tim’s ass in leggings. Fuck those leggings aren’t pants people. They know nothing.

“Yeah,” Roy says, deciding to give the girl a break since technically they do have to honor the price if it was on the rack. “That wasn’t supposed to be there, but since --”

He stops short when he hears Lian screaming in the back office, then Dick comes out, eyes wide, his expression a mixture of guilt and terror. “I ran out of paper. I just thought she’d like to play with the fire truck toy some kid left in here this weekend.”

The girl at the counter clears her throat. Roy ignores her.

“Shit,” he says. He can still hear Lian screaming.  “Did it make noise?”

Dick frowns. “I thought she’d like it.”

“I  _ really _ need to go,” the girl at the counter says, tapping her stiletto nails on the counter.

“You  _ really _ need to go f --”

“Hey,” Dick says, grabbing Roy by the elbow. “Go check on her. I got this.”

Roy nods, glaring at the girl, and runs to Dick’s office. Lian is still screaming and crying when he opens the door, alternating between covering her ears and flapping her hands around, even though the fire truck isn’t making noise anymore.  

“Hey,” he says, scooping her up. She squirms and fights against him, but Roy holds her close and tries rocking her back and forth. “Shh, shh. It’s okay. It’s okay.”

When she keeps fighting Roy tries singing the Sid the Squid theme song to her, but all that does is make her burrow into his chest and cover her ears with his hands, sobbing in between screams. He’s pretty sure he just made it worse.

Fuck, he has no idea what to do. She loves that song. The siren isn’t even going off anymore. Everyone in the store can hear her screaming. He doesn’t know what to  _ do. _

“Hey,” Steph says quietly when she steps in. “Come on. I’ll help you get her to the car.”

“But Dick’s the only --”

“It’s  _ fine.  _ Come on.”

Steph grabs Lian’s backpack and Roy totes her out of the mall, Lian thrashing against him every step of the way. When they get to the car Steph has to help Roy get her strapped in.

“What’s wrong?” Steph asks when he shuts the door and Roy just looks in the window at her, little hands still covering her ears. He doesn’t know when he started crying, but his eyelashes are cold and wet.

“I don’t know,” he says, sucking it in. “Thanks. I gotta go.”

  
  


: : :

  
  
  


Lian finally stops screaming about three miles before they get home so Roy decides to keep driving for about ten more minutes to make sure she’s good and asleep, then heads back, hoping she’ll stay that way. 

Luckily, the meltdown seemed to have worn her out, because Roy’s able to get her unbuckled and tuck her in her bed without waking her up. After he closes the door to her room very, very quietly, Roy goes over to the couch and collapses.

All the stress of the past few months catches up with him in that one second, it feels like, and he can’t hold it back anymore. He puts his face in his hands and just lets it all out, his body wracked with sobs. He hasn’t cried this hard in his life, not even when Ollie kicked him out on the street. Not even the time he drank Jager in his shitty apartment alone and thought about how useless he was and how everyone would be better off without him.

“Roy?”

Roy looks up to see Tim walk out of their room in nothing but a pair of thighs highs and black panties. Roy sniffles and uses his shirt to wipe his face then puts his finger to his lips and points at Lian’s door. Tim’s brows knit together, but he turns and goes back in his room, and Roy gets up and follows, only to become even more confused.

For one, their room is totally clean, even the floor, which is cause enough for concern. Then there are the really bright, really tall lights on both sides of the room, and Tim’s big, fancy camera set up on a tripod pointed at the bed.

Roy sniffles again and stares at him. “Errands?”

“Sorta,” Tim replies, then pulls on an oversized t-shirt and sits on the bed. “What happened? Steph texted me, but all she said was Lian’s name and a sad emoji.”

“I’ll tell you,” Roy says. “But I asked first. What the fuck are you doing in here?”

Tim sighs. “It’s not a big deal.”

“I didn’t say it was,” Roy says. “I just want to know what you’re doing.”

“Just doing some cam vids,” Tim tells him. “Taking some nudes.”

“Okay,” Roy says. He’s still kind of wrung out from his own meltdown, so maybe that’s why it’s still not making sense to him. “Any specific reason?”

“It’s good money,” Tim shrugs. “It’s easy. It’s fun.”

“Christ,” Roy says. “Are you doing this because of the money thing? Because I’m back on track now, Tim. I’ll pay you back. You don’t have to --”

“Roy,” Tim says, sitting up so that their knees are touching. “Have you ever known me to do something I don’t want to do?”

“No,” Roy says. No way in hell. “But you really don’t.”

“I know,” Tim says. “And I know you’re getting back on track. I’m not even worried about it. I want to do this. I want to help.”

“The bills are fine, baby. I got it under control. Don’t --”

“No,” Tim shakes his head. “I know, Roy. Okay? But I. A few weeks ago Lian wanted a jellyfish plush at the toy store and it was thirty fucking dollars and...And I want to be able to buy her a goddamn jellyfish plush whenever she wants one. I want to be able to buy her organic yogurt and softer clothes because she hates the seams in most of them and --”

“Tim-”

“And I want to send her to a different school because I hate that one and she’s too fucking smart for them anyway.”

Roy sighs and covers his face with his hands for a moment.

“She had a meltdown again,” He says, then looks up. He feels like they've been tip-toeing around this for the last couple of months and he can't do it anymore. He can't pretend everything is normal. “In the store. Dick had a toy fire truck and she. Tim, I think she’s --”

“Lian,” Tim says, laying his head on Roy’s shoulder. “She’s Lian. She's perfect.”

Roy’s lip quivers as he fights back tears. “Yeah. She is.”

  
  


: : : 

  
  


For dinner, Roy heats up one of those frozen bag meals that has chicken and vegetables and pasta and, more importantly, was on sale last week at Costco while Tim makes fingerpaint jellyfish with Lian at the table. Related, that is the night they learn Lian fucking hates frozen bag meals with chicken and vegetables and pasta and they all have peanut butter sandwiches with honey instead. 

After dinner, Roy puts her in a bubble bath, which she actually loves so much she refuses to get out even after Roy's drained the water and stays in the empty tub for almost half an hour. She doesn't get out until Tim gets back with a giant jellyfish plush and Roy knows that bribing probably isn’t the way to handle things all the time, but he’s also pretty sure he read something about picking your battles, so maybe they’re okay.

After a pudding cup and the same David Attenborough documentary they've been watching for eighteen straight days, day and night, Roy finally gets her in bed. He doesn’t even worry with brushing her teeth tonight. It’s been a long day already and that’s never not a battle.

When he turns off all the lights, locks the door, and finally comes to bed, Tim’s sprawled out on the sheets in nothing but the thigh highs he was wearing earlier. He is absolutely fucking perfect and for the first time in his life Roy doesn't actually know if he's in the mood.

“God, you’re gorgeous,” he says, tugging his shirt off over his head and sliding under the covers. Tim turns sideways so they’re laying face to face. “I can’t believe you.”

“Me?”

“Yes, you,” Roy says, running his hands through Tim’s hair. He’s letting it grow out longer now and Roy is really, really into it.

“I thought you’d be mad,” Tim says softly, leaning in closer to press his lips to Roy’s throat.

“I think I’m the very opposite of mad right now, baby,” he says, then rolls on top of Tim. He kisses him slow, deep, and heated, until he can feel Tim’s dick against his stomach, smearing precome over his skin. “I think you’re so fucking amazing.”

They make out like that for a few more minutes, just slow and without any sense of urgency. Tim lightly drags his nails up and down Roy’s back while Roy kisses his mouth and throat, sucking light marks into his skin that’ll be gone by morning.Roy had thought he’d be too tired for this tonight, and in many ways he is, but as soon as feels Tim’s hands unzipping his pants and pushing them off his hips for him, Roy bites Tim’s lip and slides his hands under his ass. Tim makes a little surprised sound when Roy sits back on his knees and lifts him into his lap, grabbing Roy’s face and kissing him as Roy lowers him onto his dick.

“God, baby,” Roy breathes out into the corner of Tim’s mouth as Tim wraps his legs around him. He grips Tim’s thighs tightly, fingers slipping a little on the sheer fabric of the stockings, and fucks up into Tim, swallowing the moans he pours into his mouth. Kissing becomes harder and harder the more their pace increases, but still it doesn’t feel rushed. It feels. Roy doesn’t think he’s ever felt quite like this before.

“You’re so,” Roy starts, but he doesn’t even know anymore. He’s run out of adjectives to describe the way Tim makes him feel, so he just presses his forehead against Tim’s, looking in his eyes as he pulls Tim down on him, fucking him so slow and deep they’re both covered in a sheen of sweat. He reaches up with one hand to brush Tim’s hair out of his eyes, then kisses him, soft and sweet, and when he pulls away Tim presses his forehead to Roy’s again and murmurs, “I love you.”

“Tim,” Roy half moans, half sobs, and throws Tim back down on the bed. Gone is slow and lazy. Roy goes at Tim’s mouth like a man starved, biting and bruising it, fucking into Tim like he can’t wait another second. When he whispers  _ touch yourself _ in Tim’s ear Tim wastes no time, moaning when he gets his hand on his dick, his other hand cupping the back of Roy’s neck, nails digging little crescent moons into his skin.

As soon as Tim comes, turning his face into the pillow so he doesn’t wake up Lian, Roy follows right after, gripping Tim’s hips tight enough to bruise and spilling inside of him.

  
  


: : :

  
  


Tim’s making breakfast the next morning, a happy accident that Lian dubbed squidcakes, when Roy gets a phone call.

“The fuck,” he says. “Must be a wrong number because we are literally the only people I know that get up this early.”

“Just answer it,” Tim says, flipping a blob shaped pancake. “Might be a doctor or something. You know.”

“Oh shit, you’re right,” Roy says and scrambles across the living room to the phone before it stops ringing. “Hey. Hello? Huh? Yeah. This is Roy.”

Tim looks over at him, trying to watch his expression and not let the pancakes burn. Lian’s watching Sid the Squid on his tablet at the table, singing along happily to the intro music.

“I mean,” Roy says, eyebrows drawn together. “But I didn’t fill out --”

Tim suddenly realizes who he must be on the phone with and waves at him with the spatula, vigorously nodding his head and mouthing  _ YES YOU DID. YES YOU DID. SAY YES. _

“Oh shit, I mean. Sorry, it’s really early. Yeah, I filled out an application yesterday.” He glares at Tim and Tim just shrugs and goes back to pancake flipping.

“Uh, yeah. That. That sounds fucking fantastic, actually,” Roy laughs. “Five tonight? Yeah, cool. No problem. See you then. Bye.”

Tim takes the last vaguely squid shaped pancake up and dumps it on Lian’s plate. When he turns around, Roy’s got his hip cocked up against the refrigerator.

“Timothy,” he says. “You got some ‘splaining to do.”

Tim’s mouth twists up in one corner a little, no matter how hard he tries to fight it. “You were never going to do it,” he says, walking toward Roy and poking him in the chest with the spatula in his hand. “You have no idea how talented you are. So maybe I did it for you.”

“Maybe?” Roy grins.

“Maybe I filled out an application for you,” he says, stepping between Roy’s legs. “And maybe I gave them samples of your work.”

“And maybe you love me?” Roy asks. He hasn’t been able to stop thinking about what Tim said last night. He knows people say stupid shit for orgasms sometimes, but that’s one thing Tim’s never said before and he just wants to be sure.

Tim smirks and smacks Roy’s cheek with the spatula before pouring more batter onto the griddle. “Maybe.”


End file.
